Mindanao cacao conquers Europe

Premium Filipino cacao beans, which European grading firms consider among the best in the world, will now be available in European markets after the shipment of Auro Chocolate arrived at the port of Antwerp in Belgium on 16 April 2020.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the shipment contained 20,000 kilograms of Mindanao-sourced cacao beans, composed of five different cacao varieties including the Paquibato Origin which won the Cocoa Excellence Award in 2019.

The delivery makes Auro Chocolate the first Filipino company to deliver cacao beans to the European market, the DTI said.

“We are very proud of Auro Chocolate for their success and even more excited for what this would mean to our cacao farmers,” DTI secretary Ramon Lopez said in a news release.

Auro Chocolate packs, meanwhile, were distributed to medical frontliners at the state-owned Philippine General Hospital, Makati Medical Center and the Philippine Red Cross.

Auro Chocolate said the distribution of its products was meant to show support and thanks to the heroic and unselfish acts of Filipinos involved in the battle against the invisible enemy and also “to boost their energy and morale.”

Auro Chocolate also have so-called Quarantreats Package in which for every purchase, 20 percent of proceeds are donated to local hospitals battling the lethal pathogen.